HOA glossaryMeetings & voting

What is an annual meeting?

The yearly meeting of the membership, where directors are elected and the association reports to its owners.

The annual meeting is a members' meeting, not a board meeting. Its business is typically elections, the presentation of financials and the budget, and whatever else the bylaws or state law require to be put to the membership.

Three requirements decide whether it counts: proper notice to every member in the manner the documents specify, a quorum present in person or by proxy, and an accurate record of what was decided. Failing any one puts the elections held there at risk.

Quorum failure is the standard problem. Most bylaws provide for adjournment and reconvening, sometimes at a reduced quorum, and proxies or absentee ballots are the usual remedy — but only if the documents authorise the method used.

Why it matters to a board

Plan the notice and the proxy campaign weeks ahead. An annual meeting that fails for quorum costs more than it saves.

Where the answer lives

Your recorded declaration and bylaws first, then the act that governs associations in your state. Whichever is stricter is the one that binds you.

Related terms

QuorumThe minimum participation required for a meeting to conduct business validly, set by the bylaws and sometimes by statute.ProxyA written authorisation allowing another person to attend and vote on an owner's behalf at a members' meeting.Board of directorsThe elected body that governs the association, holding all authority the governing documents grant to it and no more.BylawsThe association's internal operating manual — how directors are elected, how meetings are called and run, and what the officers may do.MinutesThe official record of what a meeting decided — the association's institutional memory and its primary evidence.
General information, not legal advice. This entry explains what the term means, not what your association must do about it. Any notice period, cure window, fine cap, vote threshold or deadline comes from your recorded declaration and your state's act — those differ in all fifty states and are amended every session. Updated August 2026. Confirm the current requirements with an attorney licensed in your state before acting.
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